Pennsylvania

Tomorrow, I'm off for a few days of R&R in the Alleghenys. I'm meeting a friend from Idaho for a few days of camping and trout fishing. I'll be back on Monday.

Delia

I was thinking today of the old folk tune Delia. Many readers will recognize the Johnny Cash version of it - the later one from American recordings that is - but he also recorded it way back in the early 60s. Bob Dylan did a great version of the story on World Gone Wrong. If you can find it though, I recommend Blind Willie McTell's version. I have it on a CD called Atlantic 12-string. Delia is an old story. She loved those rounders and she ignored Cutty. A rounder, often used in card-playing slang, usually refers to someone who knows all the angles. Anyway, Cutty (depending on the version, he is also Curtis or Kenny), enraged, shoots Delia down (often with a smokin 44). "If I hadn't shot poor Delia, I'd have had her for my wife". This theme comes up in a heck of a lot of American folk material. Usually Cutty asks the judge "what will be my fine", and the judge says, "you got 99". In one version, Cutty is sent to the big house until Delia comes back.

By the way, I have a cat named Delia. Usually we just caller her "D".

Blind Willie McTell sang lyrics close to these:
Delia, Delia, how can it be?
You love that old rounder but you don't love me
Well, that's one more rounder gone
Delia, Delia sitting all around
Some of your old rounders gonna pay my way back home
Sitting on the housetop, high as I can see
You love that old rounder, but you don't love me

Delia's poor mother took a trip out West
When she returned, Delia lyin' in rest
Delia's mother wept, Delia's father moaned
They'd have wanted their poor child to die at home
Rubber tired buggy, two-seated hack,
Took Delia to the graveyard, never brought her back

Kenny lookin' high, Kenny lookin' low,
Shot poor Delia with that hated .44
Delia, Delia, wouldn't take no one's advice
Last words I heard her say were, "Jesus Christ!"
Judge said to Kenny, "Here's a natural fact:
you going to wait in jail till Delia come back"

Kenny's in the basement, drinking from a silver cup
Delia's in the graveyard, never come back up
Kenny said to judge, "What's the fuss about?
Just that no good woman trying to put me out"

Bob Dylan sings it this way:
Delia was a gambling girl, gambled all around
Delia was a gambling girl, she laid her money down.

All the friends I ever had are gone.

Delia's dear ol' mother took a trip out West
When she returned, little Delia'd gone to rest.

All the friends I ever had are gone.

Delia's Daddy weeped, Delia's momma moaned
Wouldn't have been so bad if the poor girl died at home.

All the friends I ever had are gone.

Curtis's looking high, Curtis's looking low
He shot poor Delia down with a cruel forty-four.

All the friends I ever had are gone.

High upon the housetops, high as I can see
Looking for them rounders, looking out for me.

All the friends I ever had are gone.

Men in Atlanta, trying to pass for white
Delia's in the graveyard, boys, six feet out of sight.

All the friends I ever had are gone.

Judge says to Curtis, "What's this noise about ?"
"All about them rounders, Judge, tryin' to cut me out."

All the friends I ever had are gone.
Curtis said to the judge "What might be my fine ?"
Judge says, "Poor boy, you got ninety-nine."

All the friends I ever had are gone.
Curtis' in the jailhouse, drinking from an old tin cup
Delia's in the graveyard, she ain't gettin' up.

All the friends I ever had are gone.

Delia, oh Delia, how can it be ?
You loved all them rounders, never did love me.

All the friends I ever had are gone.

Delia, oh Delia, how could it be ?
You wanted all them rounders, never had time for me.

All the friends I ever had are gone.

Carvings

These pictures were taken at Manning Park Lodge in March.

In the Garden

This is the rock garden and the front garden here at Anchovy World Headquarters.

Trillium

Did you ever stand and shiver....

...just because you're lookin at.......a river. (Ramblin Jack)

Lunch Break Drawings

STAGG

Market Day

Blues runnin round my brain...

Cut out the off the wall jive, Sonny Boy


Meet me at the bottom, Mr. Wolf


You heard them early jalopies, you know the noise they make....The James Cotton Band


Ike in the late 50s


My kind of blues...
Sonny Boy Williamson was one of the master blues songwriters - Mr. Downchild, Too Close Together, Nine Below Zero, Don't Start Me Talkin and more and more. I read somewhere that Wolf was his brother-in-law. That makes sense if you listen to Wolf play harp - very similar attack to Sonny Boy. Cotton played with both of them, and with Ike Turner. James Cotton learned at the feet of the master - I understand he lived with Sonny Boy for a while as a boy. I really like Cotton's groove from the 70s. Great band. By the time the TV bit with Ike Turner was recorded, he was already positioning himself as a guitar player. Earlier in the 50s, he played more piano. People say Turner wrote the first rock 'n roll tune, Rocket 88 (I heard somewhere that it may have been co-written by James Cotton). That may be, but I suspect to him, it was all rhythm and blues.

For those who just have to add the bells and whistles

These guys add tech to Norteño music.

Shadow, William, Spud

Jerry

The Test

At Duke University, there were four sophomores taking Organic Chemistry. They were doing so well on all the quizzes, midterms and labs, etc., that each had an "A" so far for the semester.

These four friends were so confident that the weekend before finals, they decided to go up to the University of Virginia and party with some friends there. They had a great time, but after all the hearty partying, they slept all day Sunday and didn't make it back to Duke until early Monday morning.

Rather than taking the final then, they decided to find their professor after the final and explain to him why they missed it. They explained that they had gone to UVA for the weekend with the plan to come back in time to study, but, unfortunately, they had a flat tire on the way back, didn't have a spare, and couldn't get help for a long time. As a result, they missed the final.

The professor thought it over and then agreed they could make up the final the following day. The guys were elated and relieved. They studied that night and went in the next day at the time the professor had told them. He placed them in separate rooms and handed each of them a test booklet, and told them to begin.

They looked at the first problem, worth five points. It was something simple about free radical formation. "Cool," they thought at the same time, each one in his separate room, "this is going to be easy."

Each finished the problem and then turned the page. On the second page was written: (For 95 points): Which tire?

Remembering Jeff Healey

Here he is playing trumpet with his band, the Jazz Wizards. You can here another fine piece by the Wizards here

Spent a rainy day on a river....

What better way to spend a rainy day?

Recent Pictures

1. My future garden.
2. Mt. Roberts, which looms over Rossland.
3. A close-up of the Mountain Ash tree in my back yard, featuring yellow lichen.